Innovative Business Practices Research Articles

Building an Operational Solution Assistant System for Foreign SMEs in ROK

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important resource that helps accelerate the development of the country’s economy, add substantial funding to growth and facilitate technology transfer. Republic of Korea (ROK) is one of the world’s developed countries with dynamic economy, advanced science and technology. In recent years, the Korean government has continuously formulated tax policies, policies to support the business economy and import policies to support foreign businesses in Korea. The Pangyo Valley Creative Economy Valley is being groomed as a global startup hub in Asia. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in foreign countries are increasingly interested and eager to seek investment opportunities in the Korean market. Nonetheless, for these companies, language barriers and cultural and institutional differences make it more difficult and time-consuming to learn about the Korean market (such as investment trends, laws, visa policies, taxes and business establishment issues in Korea, etc.). In this study, we explored the process of searching information and seeking investment opportunities and built a business consulting and support application in the first stages of starting a business in ROK to increase effectiveness and save time, which is also an innovative business practice in Use-case ROK. We designed our Virtual Assistant system that can crawl and analyze data on foreign investments in ROK from open data resource websites (data.co.kr) and used analytic and aggregation techniques to explore trends in investments of foreign enterprises. We also researched the process of searching information and seeking investment opportunities for SMEs when investing in ROK, government support policies, laws and taxes as well as a number of other related issues. We built datasets and used Natural Language Processing (NLP) together with Natural Language Understanding (NLU) algorithms to build chatbot applications. Friendly framework for new developers to add and build up the dataset of AI Assistant is built by providing input intent data function, input Entity data function, input utterance data function as well as training and test function. In addition, we built a web-app connected to the server to visualize all the results of research so that SMEs owners can easily use and look for information on investments. Based on the research results, we can make recommendations to SMEs in keeping with the changing investment trends in ROK.

A Text-Based Analysis of Corporate Innovation

We develop a new measure of innovation using the text of analyst reports of S&P 500 firms. Our text-based measure gives a useful description of innovation by firms with and without patenting and R&D (research and development). For nonpatenting firms, the measure identifies innovative firms that adopt novel technologies and innovative business practices (e.g., Walmart’s cross-geography logistics). For patenting firms, the text-based measure strongly correlates with valuable patents, which likely capture true innovation. The text-based measure robustly forecasts greater firm performance and growth opportunities for up to four years, and these value implications hold just as strongly for innovative nonpatenting firms. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.

Inventing Regenerative Sustainability

Despite growing engagement by business practitioners in regenerative sustainability, there is little research into what factors contribute to its successful implementation. This paper offers first steps to close that gap. It examines theoretical foundations of and proposes empirical research for studying such innovative business practices. Our literature review draws on research in natural sciences, organization and management studies, corporate sustainability, and business strategy to theoretically (1) define regenerative sustainability, (2) explore how adopting principles of regeneration can help firms achieve “true business sustainability” (Dyllick & Muff, 2016: 163), and (3) assess potential benefits, obstacles, and enablers of such radically different business models. We then propose an in-depth interpretive case study methodology to empirically investigate the phenomenon of interest, namely how proactive firms effectively enact regenerative sustainability principles. The paper closes with potential implications of the proposed study for management theory and practice and offers ideas for future research.

Рост инновационной составляющей в европейском культурном наследии

The article is devoted to the current correspondense between traditional and innovative approaches to the functioning of cultural heritage of the Old World. The author argues that the changes taking place with the latter are primarily based on the total digitalization of European society, and innovative business practices are not adapted to this more than classical way of consuming products of classical culture. This circumstance is considered in detail in the article using data from Eurostat and Eurobarometer statistics. Factors that can now characterize the innovative dimension of cultural heritage in the EU have been identified. It is established that the interaction of traditional and innovative is now the leading trend for both prospects and theoretical understanding of nature of the modern existence of European cultural heritage.

Trust-Based Collaborative Filtering Recommendation Systems on the Blockchain

A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. The blockchain is transforming industries by enabling innovative business practices. Its revolutionary power has permeated areas such as bank-ing, financing, trading, manufacturing, supply chain management, healthcare, and government. Blockchain and the Internet of Things (BIOT) apply the us-age of blockchain in the inter-IOT communication system, therefore, security and privacy factors are achievable. The integration of blockchain technology and IoT creates modern decentralized systems. The BIOT models can be ap-plied by various industries including e-commerce to promote decentralization, scalability, and security. This research calls for innovative and advanced re-search on Blockchain and recommendation systems. We aim at building a se-cure and trust-based system using the advantages of blockchain-supported secure multiparty computation by adding smart contracts with the main blockchain protocol. Combining the recommendation systems and blockchain technology allows online activities to be more secure and private. A system is constructed for enterprises to collaboratively create a secure database and host a steadily updated model using smart contract systems. Learning case studies include a model to recommend movies to users. The accuracy of models is evaluated by an incentive mechanism that offers a fully trust-based recom-mendation system with acceptable performance.

Relationship marketing and customer satisfaction in the Ghanaian hospitality industry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how relationship marketing practice can lead to customer satisfaction in the current practices in the hotel industry in Ghana. Globally, the hospitality industry ranks as one of the most competitive business sectors with competing organisations relying on a cocktail of strategies such as relationship marketing to stay relevant, and attract and retain customers. This paper examines how relationship marketing impacts on trust, commitment and satisfaction for customers in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approachA positivist methodological framework was used for the collection of data, analysis and theoretical development in this research. The data collection questionnaire was administered to 167 guests of a 3-star hotel in the Accra Metropolis. Structural equation modelling was used to ascertain the significance of the relationship that exists between trust, commitment and customer satisfaction with respect to the relationship marketing practices of hoteliers in Ghana.FindingsStudy findings provide insight into the processes and practices of relationship marketing that is based on trust and commitment. The findings show a positive and significant relationship between trust, commitment and customer satisfaction. The study also revealed that commitment partially mediates the association between trust and customer satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study is limited to a single hospitality and tourism company in Ghana, the findings can have far reaching implications for managers in the hospitality industry in Ghana, it provides a vivid illustration of the impact that customer satisfaction can have on the fortunes of business and a genuine desire to develop trust and be committed to the welfare of business clients can lead to higher customer patronage.Practical implicationsTrust and commitment in the hospitality industry requires innovative business practices that makes the client value all the service experience that he or she may encounter. The findings indicate that customer satisfaction is influenced by trust and commitment in the hospitality industry.Originality/valueValue to the authors’ knowledge, the relationship between trust and commitment in relationship marketing and customer satisfaction concepts has not previously been investigated using structural equation modelling analysis within the Ghanaian hospitality industry. This implies that both trust and commitment are necessary to attain customer satisfaction.

Resilience in Social Innovation: Lessons from Women Market Traders

ObjectiveThe article adopts a bottom‐up approach to examine the factors that influence the design, development, and diffusion of social innovation. These factors pertain to sociocultural complexities that complicate the commercial environment.MethodsThis article presents findings from an ethnographic study of women market traders in Fijian informal marketplaces. These informal marketplaces are communal exchange arenas where many economically disadvantaged individuals come to make their living.ResultsFindings highlight the resiliency of these traders in overcoming ambiguities and pressures that exist in these marketplaces.ConclusionAn understanding of women market traders’ experimentation and strategies to manage daily tensions and policy‐related contradictions can potentially open up ideas for innovative business practices.

How can a 'Sense of Belonging' inform your teaching strategy? Reflections from a core Business unit

This paper reflects on how a ‘sense of belonging’ is cultivated for both the teaching team and the students in a large, core first year Business unit. In the Innovative Business Practice (IBP) unit students develop their personal brand and professional identity through strength-based science, and also pitch creative solutions to social problems. This cross-disciplinary unit is taught using an activity-based approach. The team of tutors are being trained as facilitators which creates a sense of belonging and community within the teaching team. A blended delivery approach utilising Crowdicity, idea management software, facilitates networked learning, and helps students develop their digital skills as well as interact with one another, the teaching team and industry experts.

Managers’ attitudes to creativity and innovation practices in the creative industries

This article seeks to demonstrate that the relationship between entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards creativity and business innovation practices is stronger in the creative industries. A sample of 454 managers of micro and medium-sized companies – of which 94 belong to the creative industries – was surveyed by making an inventory of innovative business practices and applying a scale measuring attitudes towards creativity. The results were derived based on a linear regression model with two factors for the attitudes scale (i.e. leadership and autonomy) and for the inventory of business practices (i.e. performance and strategy). This research supported the initial theoretical proposition by confirming the influence of managers’ creative attitudes towards their company’s innovative, strategy-based practices, especially within the creative industries. Innovative managers appear to be disciplined individuals driven to collaborate with their employees. Although these findings require further study, they suggest that managers in the creative industries have noteworthy characteristics.

Opportunities of Product-Service System in Physical Internet

Product-Service System (PSS) has shown great potential in supply chain and logistics management. The potential is even more evident for the recent paradigms of sustainable logistics, for example the Physical Internet that advocates the interconnection and interoperability of logistics networks. Generally, these paradigms aim at enhancing flexibility, agility and sustainability of logistics services, based on the seamless sharing of resources and services, and on decentralized real-time decision-making. To this end, these paradigms are requiring and inciting a number of innovations of PSS and services (including new business models) in supply chain and logistics management. This paper discusses the new opportunities and perspectives of PSS in Physical Internet that is one of the most recent breakthrough paradigms. We also investigate some recent innovative business models, services and practices relevant to PSS and PI, in order to point out emerging research avenues and opportunities.

La Economía Creativa en Ecuador: Un Análisis Retrospectivo en la Provincia de Cotopaxi Durante el Período 2012 – 2015

La economía creativa está orientada a servir de constructo integrador entre la creatividad, la innovación, el emprendimiento y la cultura; siendo el conjunto de actividades interrelacionadas que permiten el encadenamiento de las ideas, con el propósito de transformarlas en bienes y servicios culturales, teniendo en cuenta que cuyo valor estaría determinado por su contenido de propiedad intelectual. Tomando en consideración los enfoques teóricos existentes en el marco de esta teoría se la puede ubicar en el contexto de la corriente epistemológica del estructuralismo. A la vez, éste concepto en evolución está basado en el potencial de los activos creativos como generador de desarrollo y crecimiento económico, destacando que la creatividad es entendida como la capacidad de aportar nuevas respuestas e innovadoras prácticas empresariales frente a los retos que actualmente se enfrentan los individuos, las sociedades, las empresas y los territorios. Es así que, el objetivo de esta investigación apunta a divulgar la presencia que tiene este sector de la economía en la provincia de Cotopaxi – Ecuador; abordando el tema desde una perspectiva documental, la cual describe la radiografía retrospectiva del tejido empresarial perteneciente a la economía creativa en el periodo 2012 – 2015, basada en los datos del Directorio de Empresa del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos.

Impact of public intervention on micro and small enterprises performance in Ethiopia

PurposeThe effectiveness of any government interventions to support small firms is always a concern in achieving improvements in enterprise performances. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate thoroughly the impact of micro and small enterprises’ (MSEs’) support programs on core intermediate and final outcomes of interest.Design/methodology/approachThe impact evaluation employs a non-parametric matching procedure for parametric outcome analysis using the propensity score matching (PSM) method. Aiming at a doubly robust evaluation process, the study applies parametric analyses than non-parametric permutation-based tests to investigate the causal effects of the public intervention.FindingsThe study reveals that the public intervention encouraged MSEs to develop innovative business practices and improve their human capital development process. Moreover, the intervention had a positive effect in expanding employment opportunities in urban areas. Contrariwise, the study shows that support beneficiaries are not at an advantage in investment intensity. The lower level of investment intensity on fixed capital resulted inefficiency among the recipients. Moreover, the intervention did not have an effect on changing the net-asset over time for the recipients.Practical implicationsThis study implies that the support programs need to be dynamic and also targets on creating innovative high-growth MSEs.Originality/valueThis paper is fairly original and provides policy makers and MSE promoters/facilitators evidence-based information on the effectiveness of the support services, with looking at firm-level analysis.

Stakeholders’ Role in Creativity: A Multidimensional Business Model for Arts Festivals

This paper aims to empirically identify the key factors that drive effective innovative business models in the creative industries. There have been various approaches of analyzing the impact and importance of the creative industries but few appears to address the importance of major stakeholders driving innovation potential in this arena. A case study of the Moon Lantern Festival event held in Adelaide South Australia, where it is part of the OzAsia Festival has been adopted in this paper to underline the analyses of this study. Using a systems approach and stakeholder theory this research aims to develop a model that evaluates innovative business practices in major public Performing Arts Festivals. From the case study and its stakeholder analysis a new business model framework is proposed with a focus on organisational culture, idea generation, relationships and collaborations, team work and resource sharing.

Sonic infrastructures, musical circulation and listening practices in a changing People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT The particular media history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) provokes an attention to the evolving ways in which sounds have circulated, circulations which have traced political and economic formations and the ways of imagining space they entail. Putting insights from sound studies in dialogue with approaches from the anthropology of infrastructure, this article explores how evolving modes of musical circulation and the listening practices associated with them are connected to broader transformations of state, society and space in the PRC. I focus on Xingwaixing Changpian (Starsing Records), a Guangzhou-based record company that has risen to prominence since the early 2000s in part by engaging in innovative business practices including a social networking site, the organisation of live performances and a sublabel devoted to independent bands. I analyse the ways these endeavours, as sonic infrastructures, reflect and contribute to new mobilities and translocal connections tied to China’s evolving economic and political rationalities, and explore how the listening practices they give rise to relate to privatised notions of self and subjectivity in contemporary China.

Rethinking Justice in City-regional Food Systems Planning

This paper offers a rethinking of justice in city-regional food systems planning from the perspective of urban food enterprise (UFE). UFEs are socially innovative business practices that seek alternative, local responses to conventional food systems, from inputs through to resource recovery and waste management. They operate under several legal designations, with diversity in both the scale and scope of business practices that span all stages of this cycle. Yet in this paper I highlight how the pluralism of these urban initiatives offers a means towards rethinking the idea of justice in city-regional food systems planning. I argue that when UFEs are framed as emergent and co-evolutionary practices, the act of doing food justice is consequently a function of pragmatic real-life choices for these organizations. Moreover, while this embrace of the pluralism of UFE practices in cities requires an appreciation of the diversity of entrepreneurial activity, the act of doing food justice raises fundamental questions surrounding what constitutes a pragmatist ethics in city-regional food systems planning.

Patent Examination Reforms

We note that industry no longer relies on the chance discoveries of gifted individuals working at random but follows a plotted course, i.e., a strategically planned program of creating inventions to fit specific business needs. In light of this, we briefly comment on current examination practices of the USPTO related to patent grant and suggest reforms that we hope will better align the patent system with the socio-economic needs of the post-industrial era. Our suggestions bear in mind that the post-industrial economy is driven by disruptive technologies and innovative business practices on a scale never seen before. A distinctive feature of the post-industrial era is that patentable inventions come not from artisans but from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educated university graduates in an environment where STEM knowledge and STEM-driven technology is advancing at an exponentially accelerated pace. We have limited our suggestions to some urgently needed reforms that have a bearing on patent examination. They are aimed at stream-lining the patent system, reducing patent application examination time, and ensuring that patent validity and its monopoly scope is established before a patent is legally used in commerce or litigated in courts. We expect our suggested reforms will have fewer adverse effects on the public interest.

Exploring barriers and opportunities in adopting crowdsourcing based new product development in manufacturing SMEs

Crowdsourcing is an innovative business practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content or even funds by soliciting contributions from a large group of people (the ‘Crowd’). The potential benefits of utilizing crowdsourcing in product design are well-documented, but little research exists on what are the barriers and opportunities in adopting crowdsourcing in new product development (NPD) of manufacturing SMEs. In order to answer the above questions, a Proof of Market study is carried out on crowdsourcing-based product design under an Innovate UK funded Smart project, which aims at identifying the needs, challenges and future development opportunities associated with adopting crowdsourcing strategies for NPD. The research findings from this study are reported here and can be used to guide future development of crowdsourcing-based collaborative design methods and tools and provide some practical references for industry to adopt this new and emerging collaborative design method in their business.

Leveraging stakeholder knowledge in the innovation decision making process

Organisations must make decisions regarding how to best bridge existing societal challenges or market gaps with innovative technologies and business practices. However, many organisations turn to ad hoc decision-making. Within the contemporary environment of accelerating technological change, this is particularly problematic due to the inability of stakeholders to consider the full breadth of information that must be taken into account during the innovation process, and fosters the potential for inefficient outcomes. We propose an integrated mental modelling and multi-criteria decision analysis framework to provide a structured approach to innovation decision-making. Using formal and transparent decision rules to systematically extract the relevant knowledge from experts, one can efficiently map emergent challenges and assess value tradeoffs associated with competing objectives and investments. This process can assist in the identification of emerging societal, technical, and economic risks, and point to how different types of innovations may resolve such concerns.

An investigation into the role of enterprise information systems in enabling business innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to articulate clear understanding about the role of enterprise information systems (EIS) in developing innovative business practices. Particularly, it aims to explore the different ways that make EIS enables innovation development. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted exploratory case study, based on qualitative approach. Investigations included two case studies each involved interviewing a number of senior information technology staff, working at these cases. Findings – The paper provides empirical insights about the EIS role in enabling innovation. The analysis of the case studies revealed that integrating an EIS with other system(s) or with digital devices can provide new practices that could not be easily available without these technologies. The study also found that applying data analytics tools into data accumulated from EIS, to extract new insights, lead to innovative practices. Practical implications – The study provides a set of recommendations for organizations interested to maximize the benefits from their investments in EIS. Originality/value – The paper provides evidences from cases in United Arab Emirates for the EIS role in enabling business innovation.

Impact of microfinance on sustainable entrepreneurship development

The proponents of inclusive financial growth believe that giving relatively larger loans to the non-poor or near-poor entrepreneurs is the response of the microfinance institutions (MFIs) toward the demand of a existing and potential clients. But opponents are more likely to consider response such as mission drift by the MFIs. Therefore, this study attempts to measure the effectiveness of such microenterprise loans on increasing entrepreneurs' incomes and innovation. Our findings support the proponents of giving loans to entrepreneurs. Findings suggest that larger loans increase income, but less innovative business practice might threaten such income. Therefore, we recommend that microenterprise loans associated with proper business skills, information, and technologies be provided by MFIs with careful screening and monitoring to ensure the effective utilization of loan capital.